The Next Generation
by Authorgirl12
Summary: Time goes by and people grow up. Those people have kids, then those kids grow up. Those kids go through life just like their parents did. The only problem is that the next generation is always so different than the last. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1: Nice to Meet You

It's approximately 8 pm. The cold October air bites the skin of the hundreds of high school students that are packed into the stands and scattered in small groups around the track. The marching band stands on the far end of the field and prepares for their halftime performance. What appears to be a very large screen enlarges the images of the teenage football players on the field and the loud voice of the announcer booming through the air. Several rowdy teens clad in green scream random chants, annoying others that are trying to watch the game. The group of about 10 cheerleaders attempts to form a pyramid on the side lines, but they come toppling to the ground like stacked cards.

The brunette cheerleader that had been at the top of what used to be the pyramid stumbled to her feet and turned angrily to the others, "What was that?!"

They all just stared at her as they slowly got to their feet.

"Why can you people never form a freaking pyramid?!" The brunette continued, "It's not that difficult! You klutzes shouldn't even be cheerleaders! You disgust me! Let's try this again! And try not to screw it up this time!"

"Maybe we wouldn't screw it up so much if you wouldn't put the heaviest person on the top." A blonde cheerleader said quietly to herself.

The brunette shot her a death stare and approached her angrily, "What did you just stay?"

The blonde looked up at her confidently, then repeated her words, putting in more attitude this time, "Maybe we wouldn't screw it up so much if you didn't put the heaviest person on top!"

The brunette gasped, and hardly grabbed the blonde by the ponytail and pulled her two inches from her face, "Listen here, slut. You don't talk to me like that. I'm the leader of this squad and I have the power to get rid of whoever I want. So I'd watch your mouth because you've got yourself in deep water, missy."

"Lindsay, enough." A girl with her luscious pink hair tied into a ponytail said as kindly as she could, yet putting power into her words, "We're sorry, but we're trying our best and we'd like it if you wouldn't be so harsh on us."

The brunette -Lindsay- released the blonde and approached the pink haired girl with anger, "You have no room to talk, Lilly. Most of our fails are your fault anyway. You're a klutz just like your dad."

"Don't bring my dad into this." Lilly said harshly. Being harsh was difficult for her, considering she was usually one of the most sweet people on this planet. But she could do it if she had to.

"Oh please." Lindsay said boredly, "I've seen the videos. On stage, acting like he's cool. He's just a clumsy idiot with no talent. Just like you."

Lilly tried her best to keep her cool. She was usually pretty tolerating when it came to Lindsay and her running mouth, but Lilly couldn't help but flare up a bit when she brought it that close to home. She didn't care if people were jerks to her, but if they were jerks to her family, things were for sure gonna get ugly.

"No words, huh?" Lindsay taunted, "Why don't you just go back to your drama club freaks, because you definitely aren't worthy of being a cheerleader."

"Lilly has more talent and pep in one finger than you do in your whole body!" Another cheerleader protested, "She should've been the captain, not you!"

"The most talented girl gets picked as captain." Lindsay said arrogantly, "And coach Michaels picked me, so that means that I have the most talent. Not Lilly."

"Yeah, because you let him get in your pants in return for getting chosen as captain." Another laughed. The others laughed at this comment.

"Shut up!" Lindsay yelled, her cheeks turning a bright red, "That's not true!"

Lilly rolled her eyes and began to walk away.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Lindsay yelled after her.

"Back to my drama club freaks!" Lilly mocked, continuing to walk without turning back. She could hear Lindsay yelling stuff from behind her, but she didn't pay attention. She just kept walking. And boy did that feel good.

...

In the stands where the rowdy kids in green sat -more like stood- they all chanted and had a good time. The group was led by a teenage boy, probably around 16. He had mixed skin, and no jacket despite the uncomfortably cold temperature. A beanie was placed on his head, and unruly indigo curls stuck out and hung loosely over his forehead. Without even bothering to use a megaphone, he led the chants.

"I believe!" He yelled, and the group in front of him echoed. "I believe that!" He continued, and others echoed him once again. "I believe that we will win!" The others echoed, and he along with the rest continuously chanted that phrase until it died out into cheering.

The loud buzzer went off, signaling half time. The boy smiled and turned to his group, "Okay guys! That's half time! I'll be right back! The bathroom is calling me!"

The others laughed as they disbanded. On his way to the bathroom, the boy decided to go up in the stands and check on his little brother.

"Hey Isaac!" He greeted as he sat himself next to a blonde boy that appeared to be around 13.

"Hey Luke!" Isaac greeting, turning to his brother, "Isn't this game awesome?! We're totally crushing the other team!"

"That we are." Luke agreed, despite the fact that he hadn't been paying attention to the game. He never did. He was always too busy leading the Green Pit to pay attention (That was the name for his group).

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. You know that high schoolers don't take too kindly to middle schoolers coming to high school events." Luke said, patting his brother on the back.

"Thanks Luke." Isaac smiled, "I'm happy that mom and dad made us come to this. I'm having so much fun!"

Luke glanced at the empty seat next to Isaac, "But you're by yourself."

"No I'm not." Isaac said happily, "I made a friend. His name is Niall, and he loves sports. He's been explaining everything in the game because I certainly don't understand any of it! He's really cool!"

"I bet." Luke laughed. He liked seeing his brother happy.

Just then, a boy with purple hair, crazy green eyes, and purple rimmed glass scooted past Luke and sat next to Isaac. He handed him a soda and some popcorn.

"Niall! This is my brother Luke! Luke, this is my friend Niall!" Isaac introduced them.

"Hiya!" Niall said, nodding his head at Luke.

"Nice to meet you." Luke said back, then turned to Isaac, "I'm gonna go now. Have fun, little dude."

Isaac smiled and popped a piece of popcorn into his mouth, "I already am."

Luke smiled and headed towards the bathroom. As he rounded the corner, there was a girl sitting on a bench, struggling to pull a ponytail out of her long pink hair. She wore dark jeans, blue Converse shoes, and a green hoodie with the school logo on the front. She quietly yelped as she struggled with her hair.

"Uh, do you need help?" Luke asked awkwardly.

She stopped what she was doing and glanced up at him. She smiled awkwardly, "Um. No. I'm fine. Thanks." She continued to yank at the ponytail with no success.

"Are you sure?" Luke asked, trying not to laugh.

She sighed reluctantly, "Okay. Maybe a little help. If you don't mind."

"How did this happen, anyway?" He asked, placing himself on the bench to her right.

"The ponytail kinda got stuck in my hair." She laughed awkwardly, "There's just something about the way that my mom does ponytails that always gets my hair all tangled."

Luke laughed as he untangled the hair tie from the girl's hair. He couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful her pink locks were. It was really soft, and it smelled good...

As he got lost in his thoughts, the hair band suddenly snapped, sending it flying and smacking him in the eye. He yelped and threw his hand over his now throbbing eye, causing his beanie to fall off.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?!" The girl gasped, cupping his face in her hands.

He blinked and looked up at her, suddenly becoming lost in her eyes. They were blue, like his, but hers were different. They were mesmerizing. The most beautiful shade of blue he'd ever seen. He noticed that her long hair now fell around her shoulders, a single strand falling in her eyes as she also stared at him; a memorized expression across her face.

The moment that they realized that they were staring at each other, they pulled away from each other, both awkwardly laughing. Luke hoped that she didn't notice that he was blushing hard core.

"I'm sorry." They both apologized in unison, then laughed at themselves.

"Jinx!" She exclaimed, "You owe me a soda."

"What?!" He laughed, "Why do I owe you a soda?"

"That's the rule of the jinx." She explained, "If you say something at the same time, and the other person says 'jinx' before you do, then you owe them a soda."

Luke laughed and shook his head, "I've never heard that before."

"It's from a long time ago." She waved it away, "My mom taught it to me when I was little."

He nodded and thought about that. He'd never heard such a thing.

She suddenly giggled and he turned towards her, "What?"

She shook her head and continued to giggle, "Nothing. It's just that you have a lot of hair."

His hand moved to the top of his head where his unruly indigo curls sat. He hadn't even realized that his beanie had fallen off. He quickly reached down and grabbed the beanie, placing it back on his head in its rightful spot.

"Sorry." He apologized.

"Don't be sorry!" She exclaimed.

"No, I am sorry." He repeated, "It's just that a lot of people make fun of my hair. I get it from my mom, so she doesn't want me to cut it."

"I'm not making fun of you!" She exclaimed, removing the beanie from his head once again. He almost swatted her hand away, but he just let her do it. "I think your hair is cute."

"You think... you think it's cute?" He asked awkwardly, hoping so much that his cheeks didn't look like blushing tomatoes.

"Yeah." She smiled, "My parents have this friend that has these beautiful blonde curls, and every time I tell her that I love them, she says that I can have them."

Luke laughed, "That sounds like something that my mom would say."

They laughed, and awkwardly sat in silence for another moment. Then he realized something.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name." He said.

"Oh! It's Lilly." She introduced herself.

"That's a really pretty name." He complimented, not noticing at all that he was flirting with her.

She blushed, and tucked her hair behind her ear, "Thanks... I don't think I caught your name, either."

"Luke." He introduced himself, "Very bland, but it's my name."

"No, I like it." She smiled, "If anything is bland, it's 'Lilly'."

"I don't know any Lillys." He said, shaking his head, "It's not bland at all."

"Well, you know one now." She said, shooting him a kind smile.

He examined her face for a moment, and couldn't help but notice how familiar she looked. He could've sworn that he'd never seen her before, but she just looked so familiar.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" He asked, still examining her face.

She shrugged, "You might've seen me around school something. If you've watched the cheerleaders you might've recognized me."

"You're a cheerleader?" He asked, "Where's your uniform?"

"I just took it off." She sighed, almost as if this relieved her, "Our captain was being a bitch like always, so I think I quit."

"You think?" Luke asked.

"Yeah." She answered, "I just kinda walked away. I don't know if that counts as quitting, tough."

Luke thought about that for a moment, "The captain is Lindsay Varner, right?"

"That's her." Lilly nodded.

Luke laughed, "She's the bitchiest bitch on this planet."

"Tell me about it." She laughed, "I've had to deal with her for the past almost three years."

"Then why did you stay?" He asked, "If you weren't happy, then why didn't you quit earlier?"

"Because I love cheering." She answered, "I love pepping the team and the crowd. I love representing the school and doing what I do. When I'm out there on the field cheering, I just feel so alive. I feel like that's where I belong. Then Lindsay just comes along and ruins it all."

Luke sighed. He could tell that Lilly really had a deep hate for Lindsay. Like Lindsay had done something to her that Luke or anyone else didn't know about. Something that had hit Lilly in the bad spot. He wanted to ask about it, but he knew that she probably wasn't ready to talk about. Not to anyone.

Lilly sighed and stood, "I guess I should get going. Half time is probably almost over, and I need to check on my little sister. High schoolers don't take too kindly to middle schoolers at high school functions."

Luke nodded and also stood, "Yeah. I said the same thing to my little brother earlier."

Lilly smiled at him then nodded, "It was nice meeting you Luke. I hope we run into each other again sometime."

He smiled and nodded, "You too, Lilly."

"Thanks again for helping me with my hair." She thanked.

"It was no problem." Luke shrugged, "I like helping people."

She smiled, then turned to walk away, but gasped and turned back toward him, "I almost forgot!"

She ran to him and placed his beanie on his head, for she had still been holding it from when she had taken it off, "You have beautiful hair, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise."

She smiled sweetly and turned away, walking away with a sort of skip in her step, until she disappeared around the corner and out of Luke's sight. He stood there for what seemed like forever, pretty sure that his cheeks were painted red. That's when he realized something that he'd never wanted to realize:

Luke had a crush on a girl.

Author's Note: AND SCENE! What do you think? This is one of my new stories that I am starting, and I'm pretty excited! Before you start getting confused: yes. They are the guppies' kids. They aren't just random people! I'd like to give credit to AmberStone12 for creating these lovely children and helping me with the idea for this story! They are also mentioned in her amazing story if you haven't read it- WHICH YOU SHOULD. And if you're wondering, yes, Kyouhei and Rini will be in this story! Just not quite yet. The guppies will also play an important role in this story! I'd like to thank Princess Caveia1234 for also helping with the idea for this story and for being an awesome friend! Adios for now people! Peace!

PS: Do you like the length of this chapter? Do you think it should be shorter? Longer? Tell me what you think! Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2: He's Her Warrior

Rini had never been to a football game. Come to think about it, she'd never been to any kind of sporting event. Her parents were going out to dinner with some friends, and suggested that she and her siblings go to the varsity football game at school if they want something to do. They took the suggestion and decided to go to the game.

Upon arriving, her little brother Niall almost immediately made a new friend and ran off to watch the game. He was really big into sports, so she knew that he would have a good time. She was just worried about him, because high schoolers didn't take too kindly to middle schoolers at high school functions.

This left Rini alone with her other brother, Kyouhei. She didn't mind spending time with him though. She loved being with him. They were twins after all. Despite being twins, they didn't look very similar. Rini took more traits from their father, having long red hair and dazzling green eyes. On the other hand, Kyouhei got his looks from their mother. His purple hair and brown eyes reassembled the beautiful woman like you wouldn't believe. Their personalities were kind of switched, though. Rini was very bubbly and smiley like their mother, and Kyouhei was very quiet and reserved like their father. Despite their differences, the twins were inseparable.

That night, Rini decided to wear her hair down instead in pigtails like she usually did. She figured that it would help her keep warm in the chilly outdoor stadium. Boy was she wrong. Despite wearing two shirts and a green school hoodie which was usually very warm, she shivered on the cold metal stadium seats. If it hadn't been for Kyouhei, she wouldn't have been having fun.

As soon as she started shivering, he put his arm around her and pulled her close. She knew that he must've been cold, too, but if he was, he didn't show it. He just held her in his arms and shared his body warmth with her. Rini was sure that not a single person on that earth loved their brother as much as she loved Kyouhei.

He was dressed in a hoodie that was similar to hers, because their mother wanted them to show 'school pride'. They didn't mind, though. They liked to match each other. He also wore a pair blue headphones around his neck like he always did. He hadn't actually used them all night -and he probably wasn't going to- but he still liked to have them with him at all times. They were special to him.

Rini didn't understand football at all. She just watched as the players ran across the field and piled on top of each other several times, just to do it all again. It didn't make any sense to her, but she still found it hilarious how they continuously formed dog piles in order to get the ball. She just sat there and giggled, and people would look at her like she was an idiot, but she didn't care. She was having a good time, and that's all that mattered.

Near the end of half time after the marching band was done performing, Rini heard a sound coming from her stomach.

"Ooo." She giggled, "I think I'm starting to get hungry."

"Do you want to get some food?" Kyouhei asked. He was very quiet, and almost never spoke. Rini was basically the only person that he was capable of having a conversation with.

Rini nodded and stood, "Do you still have the money?"

Kyouhei pulled the 20 dollar bill out of his pocket that their father had given them for food.

"Should we ask Niall if he wants anything?" He asked.

Rini shrugged, "Why not?" She grabbed into her brother's hand, and together they made their way through the stands toward their little brother.

"Niall, were going to get some food from the concession stand. Do you want anything?" Rini asked as they approached him and the other boy that he sat with. Rini hadn't caught his name, but he had golden blonde hair that she found just down right adorable. She hoped that him and Niall would become good friends, because from what she could tell, the boy was a little saint.

"No thanks." Niall replied, "I already ate."

"Where'd you get money to buy food?" She asked, hoping to no end that he hadn't stolen anything.

He jabbed his thumb toward the blonde boy, "Isaac bought. I insisted that I get money from you guys, but he wanted to buy. Isn't that nice of him?"

Isaac. That was his name.

"Okay then." Rini said cautiously, "Just tell us if you need anything."

Niall smiled and nodded, then went on with his conversation with Isaac.

Rini and Kyouhei turned and headed towards the concession stands.

Rini skipped happily as she sang some random song to herself that she'd heard her mom's friend sing a million times before, then turned to Kyouhei, "I'm having so much fun! I'm happy we decided to come to this!"

Kyouhei cracked a rare smile and squeezed his sister's hand, "I am too."

From what seemed like out of nowhere, someone came and shoved Kyouhei harshly from his right, almost sending Rini falling backwards onto the stadium seats, but luckily Kyouhei caught her.

"Looky who we have here." A taunting voice said, "Ching Chang showed up to the football game with his little girlfriend."

"Leave us alone, Russell!" Rini exclaimed, grabbing Kyouhei's arm and him pulling him close, "And I'm his sister, not his girlfriend!"

"He's banging his sister?" Russell joked to his buddies, who were coming up from behind him and surrounding the twins, "That's even worse!"

Kyouhei stood strong and stepped in front of Rini. He wasn't going to allow those idiots to get anywhere near her, and she knew that. She knew that he was going to protect her even if that meant that he was going to go down in the process. But he wasn't going to go down. She knew Kyouhei: he was a warrior.

Rini, on the other hand, felt like screaming and running away. But she couldn't; the enemy had them surrounded. She had always been scared off Russell and his gang. She'd seen what they could do. All she knew was that you didn't want to be on their bad side. And for whatever reason, her and Kyouhei were on their bad side.

"What are you gonna do, Ching Chang?" Russell continued to taunt, "Huh? You just gonna drown us out with those stupid ass headphones like you always do? Huh?"

Kyouhei just kept his eyes on all of them, as if preparing to make a move in case one of them tried anything. As if he sensed that one of the idiots behind them would try to hurt her, he pulled Rini around to his front and wrapped his arms around her. He gave them a look that said 'touch her, and you die'.

Russell smirked and shook his head, "If there weren't so many people around, I would grind both of you to a pulp."

When neither Rini nor Kyouhei said a word, Russell grunted and motioned for his buddies to follow him, "Come on guys. These two are a waste of our time."

With that, Russell and his idiots reassembled and walked away to find their next victims.

Rini sighed and buried her face in her brother's chest, "They scare me, Kyouhei! Why do they have to do this to people?"

"I won't let them hurt you, Snow Bunny." He whispered, stroking her hair, "As long as I'm here, they won't touch a hair on your head."

'Snow Bunny' was his nickname for her, since that was what 'Rini' meant in Japanese. He had called her that for as long as she could remember. Despite the fact that both of them were now 16 years old, she still loved it when he called her that.

"How do you do it?" She asked, noticing how bad she was shaking, "How do you make them go away like that?"

"Show them that you're not scared." He answered simply, "Show them that you mean business. If they know that they aren't bothering you, they'll leave you alone."

"That's hard to do when they actually are bothering me." She sighed.

He cupped her face in his hands and looked into her eyes, "Then don't let them know."

She smiled and nodded.

He gently kissed her forehead and grabbed onto her hand, "Let's go get some food, shall we?"

Author's Note: Hiya papayas! That was a fast update right? I've had a lot of free time on my hands for some reason. How'd you like this chapter? Not much happened in this one, but I thought it was a good way to introduce Kyouhei and Rini XD. The next chapter will be more eventful! I promise! Btw, if you don't know who these two are by now, then you've got problems. Lol jk. So, that's all for now! Adios for now people! Peace!


	3. Chapter 3: Mr Chair is Evil

Lilly couldn't stop thinking about Luke for the rest of the night. This was a new thing to her, because besides the football players flirting with her and the rest of the cheerleaders, she'd never had a boy talk to her as much as Luke did. She'd never had a crush on anyone before, but she was pretty sure that what she felt for Luke was definitely a crush. The more she thought about him, the more she was sure of it.

It was strange, because she'd never had any kind of contact with him before. She recognized him as the guy that ran the Green Pit almost immediately after she'd seen him. She'd never really paid much attention to him, really, but she'd always had the thought in the back of her mind that he was kind of cute. That was as far as her thoughts about him ever went. After actually having a conversation with him and learning his name, she knew that there was just something about him that drew her to him. There was something about him that made her like him.

After Lilly checked on her sister, Nina, who was hanging out with some of her friends that she'd run into, she realized that other than the cheerleaders, she had no friends there. Her drama club friends didn't go to sporting events, so that left Lilly alone.

She was tempted to call her parents to come pick her up, but she didn't want to ruin their night out. She also knew that her siblings were having fun at the game, so she decided just to go up into the stands to watch the game. It was still half time, but she didn't mind to wait a couple of minutes.

As she headed up the stadium stairs, she because lost in her thoughts and without paying attention, tripped on one of the steps. She would've face planted into the cold metal stairs, but instead fell into another person who fell backwards and landed on their bottom.

"I'm so sorry!" They both exclaimed in unison. They both laughed and helped each other up, giving Lilly a chance to get a good look at the person. It was a girl, probably the same age as her. She had long red hair and beautifully distracting green eyes. Lilly had never seen the girl before, but they were wearing identical school hoodies, so she knew that they attended the same school. There was just something about her that looked very familiar.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Lilly asked.

The girl shrugged and shook her head, "Not that I know of. Why?"

Lilly shook her head, drawing a complete blank, "I don't know. You just look really familiar."

"Well, I don't think I've ever seen you before." The girl said, "You might've seen me around school before."

Lilly couldn't help but become extremely paranoid by this. She knew that she'd seen that girl somewhere before, but she just didn't know where.

"Wait a second." The girl said, holding up a finger, "Aren't you that cheerleader that stormed away after the pyramid collapsed?"

Lilly laughed awkwardly, "You saw that?"

"I thought everyone did." The girl laughed, "What are you doing now?"

"Just going to watch the game." Lilly shrugged. She considered saying 'going to sit by myself to fantasize about the boy that I like' but she knew that was a bit much to say to a person that she'd just met... or to anyone.

"By yourself?" The girl asked, seeming genuinely interested in what Lilly had to say.

"Yeah." Lilly answered, "But I don't mind. I'll still enjoy watching the game."

"You can come sit with me and my brother if you want!" The girl suggested, seeming a little too overjoyed by this.

"Oh no, you don't have to-" Lilly began to say, but the girl interrupted her.

"We won't mind!" She exclaimed, "Well, I won't mind. But I'm sure Kyouhei won't mind either!"

"Kuh-yo-what?" Lilly asked, not picking up what she'd said.

"Kuh-yo-hay." The girl pronounced, separating the syllables, "Kyouhei."

"That's an... interesting name." Lilly nodded.

"It means warrior!" She exclaimed, a confused look coming over her face, "Or maybe it means brave... I can't really remember! My mom is better at Japanese than I am!"

"Well how about I learn your name before we go into the depths of your brother's name?" Lilly laughed.

"Oh, right!" The girl laughed, "My name is Rini!"

"Rini." Lilly mused, "That's really pretty. Is it short for anything?"

"Nope." Rini giggled, "It's just Rini."

"Well, Rini," Lilly said, finding it fun to say that name, "I'm Lilly. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Lilly." Rini laughed, "Shall we go now?" She held out her arm for Lilly to loop with hers.

Lilly linked arms with Rini and smiled, "Yes we shall."

...

For whatever reason, Luke didn't really feel like being peppy anymore. He just felt as if he didn't have the energy to lead the green pit for the rest of the night. And the others noticed.

"Hey man." Oscar, one of the other green pit leaders, said after approaching Luke, "What's up with you tonight? After you came back from halftime you've just seemed completely out of energy."

Luke shrugged and leaned on the railing that separated the stands from the track that ringed around the field, "I guess I'm just tired, or something."

"You didn't seem tired earlier." Oscar shook his head, "You had more pep than ever before! And now look at you. You can barely stand up!"

Luke quickly pushed himself off of the railing and crossed his arms in order to prove a point.

"What's up with you, man?" Oscar asked, "I've never seen you like this."

"I probably just hit a wall." Luke shrugged, "Everyone does eventually. One minute you're full of energy, and the next you barely have enough energy to stand up. It happens to everyone."

Oscar looked around as if making sure that no one was listening, then leaned closer to Luke, "It's a girl, isn't it?"

Luke shoved him away -not too harshly- then scoffed as he felt a blush coming on, "What makes you think that it's a girl?!"

Oscar laughed, "What's her name? Is she hot?"

"Don't talk about her like that!" Luke whispered harshly.

"So there is a girl!" Oscar whispered in that 'I was right and you were wrong' kind of bragging voice.

"Oscar, you cannot tell anyone." Luke whispered, "This is going to stay our little secret, all right?"

Oscar tried to control his laugh, and nodded, "Okay. Okay. I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks, man." Luke nodded, sighing with relief. He wasn't sure if he was relieved that Oscar wasn't going to tell anyone, or if he was relieved to get his feelings about Lilly off of his chest. It had only been about 10 minutes since their conversation, and he had already managed to tell someone about her. He was really going to struggle with hiding those feelings.

"Since you're obviously not going to pep up again, how about you take the rest of the night off?" Oscar suggested, "That way you can go talk to that girl of yours."

"I'm sure she doesn't want me talking to her." Luke sighed, "The only reason she talked to me in the first place was because I helped her."

"Girls are suckers for guys that'll go out of their way to help them!" Oscar exclaimed, slapping Luke's arm playfully, "You could easily get her wrapped around your finger! Girls are easily manipulated like that."

"I don't want to manipulate her!" Luke exclaimed, "She's a really nice girl and I shouldn't have to manipulate her to get to know her!"

"Come on, Luke." Oscar shook his head, "Just play nice guy for a while, screw her, then move on to the next girl like you always do. Easy."

"Oscar, that's what YOU always do." Luke shook his head, "I would never do that to her or anyone else. Besides... I wouldn't want to 'screw her' either... I'm still a virgin."

Oscar stared at him for a moment as if he didn't believe him. When he realized that he was telling the truth, he suddenly burst out into a fit of laughter.

"Dude! I'm serious!" Luke exclaimed, feeling nervous as Oscar's laughter began drawing unwanted attention to them.

"Luke's a virgin!" Oscar laughed, earning giggles from several of the girls around them.

"Whatever, man." Luke said frustratingly. He stormed away as the idiot that he called his friend continued to laugh until his face was red from a lack of oxygen.

'I really need some new friends.' He thought as he marched off into the crowd to do just that.

...

Kyouhei was starting to worry about Rini. She had left several minutes before to throw away some trash, and hadn't returned. He hadn't wanted to separate from her in fear that Russell and his idiots would try to harm her, but she insisted that she would be okay, because it was 'only to the trash can and back.' Kyouhei was still unsure. And when she took forever to return, that didn't make him feel any better.

"Kyo!" A familiar voice yelled. He turned to see Rini hoping down the metal staircase. Thank god she was okay.

He was about to ask what took her so long, but suddenly realized something: she was with another girl. His mouth quickly snapped shut as we watched the two girls approach.

"Lilly, this is my brother Kyouhei." Rini said to the girl she was with, "Kyouhei, this is my new friend, Lilly."

Kyouhei nodded at the girl, Lilly, keeping a blank expression.

"Nice to meet you." Lilly said kindly, smiling at him as she did.

"I invited her to come sit with us." Rini explained, "She was by herself and I figured she would like some company. You don't mind, do you?"

Kyo shook his head, and gestured for them to come sit. The two girls stepped over him and sat just as half time ended and the third quarter started. He couldn't help but notice that Rini had made sure that she was sitting in the middle of the three of them. She must've still been cold, but he figured that it'd be a little awkward to put his arm around her again with Lilly sitting right there. He didn't want to make her feel like a third wheel.

"So..." Lilly said as if trying to start a conversation, "You guys are... twins?"

"Yup!" Rini answered happily. She leaned her head on Kyo's shoulder as if to prove her point, "Always have been. Always will be."

He just nodded in agreement.

Lilly cocked her head and glared at him for a moment, as if pondering about something, "You don't talk much, do you?"

"He talks all the time." Rini said, sitting up straight once again, "He can just be shy around new people sometimes."

"I know a lot of people that are like that." Lilly smiled, turning her attention toward the game. He was relieved that she'd finally stopped glaring at him the way that she'd been doing. It was similar to a look that he'd always seen one of his mom's friends give people, and it was freaky how much Lilly reminded him of her. Hey, maybe they were related.

"Do you understand football?" Rini asked Lilly, who seemed genuinely interested in the game.

"Mhm." Lilly nodded, turning to Rini, "I kinda have to. I'm a cheerleader. I kinda need to know when to cheer and when not to cheer. Plus, I just love sports. You can blame my dad for that, though."

"Your dad likes sports?" Rini asked. She seemed to be struggling to talk through her chattering teeth, had pulled both of her hands into her sleeves, and was shivering really badly. That night was colder than anyone had expected. Even Kyo was shivering a bit. Although, for whatever reason, Lilly didn't seem affected by the cold.

"I guess you could say that." Lilly shrugged, "He wanted a son to play sports with, but when he got a DAUGHTER to play sports with, he seemed to think that was the most awesome thing in the world."

"Our dad doesn't like sports." Rini laughed, "He's never been able to play them... or watch them. He prefers non-physical activities like reading or drawing. He's a great artist."

"That what he does for a living?" Lilly asked, half of her attention on Rini, the other half on the field.

"No." Rini answered, "He's a paleontologist. Sometimes he takes us on digs. It's really cool."

"I know a paleontologist." Lilly laughed, "One time he invited my parents to a dig, but I've never been to one. It's apparently quite fascinating."

"It is!" Rini agreed, then nudged Kyo with her elbow, "Tell her."

He just nodded, not saying a word.

Lilly seemed fascinated by this, "I wish my dad would let me come to work with him. He says that it's too dangerous for me, but I don't blame him. It's probably true."

"What does he do?' Rini asked, rubbing her arms for warmth.

"He's a fire fighter." Lilly said, sitting tall as if she was proud to say that.

Rini nodded, glancing at the football field as if she wasn't really interested in the game at all. Lilly's attention was pretty much completely off of the game, too. Kyo was happy that Rini had made a friend. Other than him, he was pretty sure that she had no friends. He would constantly tell her to try to make friends, but she refused to do so. She claimed that he was all that she needed. Well, he had no room to talk; she was his only friend. But at least she was capable of making friends. Kyo felt as if he wasn't.

"Oh my gosh!" Lilly suddenly exclaimed, accidentally startling Rini, "My homework!"

"What?" Rini asked, alarmed, "What about it?"

"I totally forgot." She laughed, "I left my text book in my locker!"

"Well I guess it's a good thing you came to the game!" Rini laughed, also, "Do you want us to come with you to get it?"

Lilly shrugged, "If you want."

Rini stood, and pulled Kyo up by his arm, "Let's go then!"

...

Rini didn't know why Kyouhei was suddenly so quiet. As soon as Lilly showed up, he didn't open good mouth once. Of course he was usually pretty quiet, but this was different. Any time there was someone else in their presence, he would never talk. Never. Rini didn't know why, but whenever she'd ask him about it, he'd just try his best to avoid the subject. She'd learned not to bring it up.

As children, their parents had taught the two of them to hold hands in public, so that in case they were separated from them somehow (which had of course never happened) the twins would at least be lost together. As they got older, the two had agreed to stop doing so, because it was confusing people into thinking that they were a couple. That was the last thing that either of them had wanted. But sometimes they forgot about their little agreement, like earlier that night, and ended up doing exactly what they agreed not to do.

So walking to the school building in between Kyouhei and Lilly, Rini couldn't feel more lonely. With the large and rowdy groups of students all around her, she felt even more pressured to cling onto her brother. Most of the other students scared her. They were all so big, and she was so... not big. She would've done just that if it wasn't for Lilly. For one, Rini didn't want to make her feel unwanted, or like a third wheel. Secondly, the girl was just so confident. She walked with pride, and didn't seem antagonized by anyone or anything. She was just glowing, and Rini loved that. It gave her confidence to be with someone like that. Yet, she still didn't feel comfortable in the large crowd. She couldn't help but feel a wash of relief when they exited the stadium.

They headed into the school building which was always super creepy at night. The halls were dark, and every single last sound was enhanced by the dead silence that spread around the school. You'd be relieved to come across a light, because the darkness was just that unbearable. It was all super eerie, and just about the creepiest feeling in the world.

"Are we almost at your locker?" Rini whispered, not knowing how much longer she'd be able to handle the intense darkness.

She was pretty sure that Lilly nodded, but it was kind of difficult to tell, "It's just at the end of this hall."

"It wouldn't hurt anyone to turn on some lights in here." Rini laughed nervously.

"That'd be nice, wouldn't it?" Lilly laughed, although her laugh wasn't a nervous one.

'Calm down.' Rini told herself in her mind, 'It's just a hallway. You're inside of the school that you go to everyday. A little darkness isn't going to hurt you.'

She thought she'd been relieved to get out of that crowd of people, but that was when she'd never been inside of the school at night before. Now she'd give anything to go back outside. She was scared, and wasn't afraid to admit it.

She continued to try to think happy thoughts, and for a moment, it actually started to work. That was, until it all was startled out of her.

"HEY!"

The two girls screamed in unison, and Rini gave in to her fear and threw her arms around Kyouhei, hiding behind him and using him as her personal human shield. Lilly scuddled closer to them as they all looked around the dark hallway, but they saw no one.

"Is someone there?" Lilly asked out despite the fact that it appeared to them that they were the only ones in that hallway.

"Yes! In here!" The voice replied back seemingly from nowhere. It sounded muffled, as if it were speaking to them from a different room. It was obviously a male voice, most likely a student from the way it sounded. Rini didn't recognize the voice, but she eased up a bit by the fact that this person most likely wasn't a threat.

"Where is 'here'?" Rini asked, not letting go of her brother. He'd also wrapped his arms around her, like an act of protecting her.

"Janitor's closet." The voice answered, "Please help, it's getting hard to breathe in here."

Lilly stepped out into the middle of the hall, and examined around her. She was obviously looking for the janitor's closet. Rini also looked around her, and tried to get her eyes to adjust to the darkness. That's when she saw it. Through the dark, she spotted a door to their right with a chair propped up under the knob. This person was locked in the janitor's closet, but whoever put him there did it on purpose.

"Oh my gosh!" She exclaimed, letting go of Kyo, and rushing over to the chair. The other two took a few seconds to realize what what she was doing.

She grabbed onto the front legs of the chair, and yanked as hard as she could, but it barely budged.

"Guys! Help!" She yelped.

The other two rushed to her side and pulled until the chair came out of its place, sending the three of them falling to their bottoms with a thud.

Rini whispered from the fall has they slowly stood up. The door creaked open, and a figure stepped out into the hall. It didn't seem to take Lilly very long to recognize him.

"Luke?" She gasped, squinting through the dark.

"Lilly?" The boy asked back, adjusting the beanie on his head as if seeing her flustered him.

"You two know each other?" Rini asked, looking back and forth between them.

"We've met." Lilly answered, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, looking away from them. Rini couldn't tell through the darkness, but she was pretty sure that Lilly was blushing.

There was an awkward silence for a few terrible moments before Rini decided to break it.

"Who locked you in there?" She asked Luke, feeling angry at whoever would've done such a thing. She barely knew Luke, but that didn't matter to her. That type of behavior was not acceptable.

Luke shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't know who they were, but it was a big group of loons that dragged me in here against my will. Their leader was some ugly ginger kid."

He then took one glance at Rini's hair, and flashed her an apologetic smile, "No offense. I have nothing against gingers."

"None taken." She giggled, knowing that he didn't mean it in a bad way.

Kyouhei suddenly gave her a nudge with his elbow, and gave her a look that she understood perfectly. She flashed a look back that asked if he was sure, and he nodded surely.

"Are you two doing that weird twin telepathy stuff?" Lilly asked, "Because if you are, then it's kind of freaking me out."

"They're twins?" Luke asked, seeming amused by this, "That's cool! Are they talking with their minds or something?"

Rini ignored their comments and turned to Luke, "We think we know who did this to you."

...

As it turned out, Luke hadn't just been shoved into the janitors closet and left there. He'd also taken quite a bit of a beating. That was evident as soon as they got out of the dark school building. They all gathered in the spot where Lilly had first met Luke earlier that night, which brought back the memory of what happened those few minutes that they were together.

"Do you need to go to the hospital or something?" Lilly asked as she cleaned the blood off of his face which was still running out of his nose. She found it utterly disgusting, for she wasn't good with blood. She still felt the need to be the one to be doing it.

"No no." Luke answered, taking a clean paper towel out of Lilly's hand, in which she'd gotten out of the bathroom, and holding it up to his bloody nose, "I'm fine. My face just hurts... a lot."

He then proceeded to tilt his head back, but Kyouhei shoved his head forward, startling him.

"Ow! What the hell?!" Luke exclaimed.

"Always tilt your head forward with a bloody nose." Rini translated, wrapping her arms around herself for warmth as she shivered in the cold night air.

Lilly still found it freaky how they seemed to be able to read each other's minds. It made her wonder if twin telepathy was actually real.

"Luke!" A voice suddenly exclaimed. They all turned to see two boys, probably around 13 or 14, running towards them.

"I got your text." One boy said, seeming quite out of breath from running. He had unruly blonde hair that was similar to Luke's, just not nearly as curly. They looked very similar, making it obvious that they were most likely brothers. The other boy had purple hair with matching glasses, and didn't seem to be out of breath the least bit.

"Niall?" Rini asked the boy with the glasses, "What are you doing?"

"Isaac got a text from his brother saying that he was hurt." The boy -Niall- answered.

"You know this kid?" Luke asked Rini, pointing to Niall.

"He's our brother." She answered, acting as if he should've known that.

"Your sister knows my brother?" Isaac -the blonde kid- asked Niall.

Niall shrugged, "Apparently."

"Never mind that." Luke told his brother, "I need you to promise not to tell mom and dad about this. We can't have mom flipping out and threatening to kill people."

"Uhm..." Isaac said nervously, looking down at his shoes, "I kind of texted her while we were on our way over here..."

"WHAT?" Luke exclaimed, shooting to his feet, "Isaac, are you crazy?!"

"I'm sorry! I thought she needed to know!" Isaac apologized, cowering in fear of his older brother.

"Do you realize what you've done?" Luke scolded, clenching the bloody paper towel in his hand. Blood still trickled out of his nose.

"Luke, calm down." Lilly tried telling him as comfortingly as she could. He just glanced at her, his cheeks red with anger, and his expression softened. She didn't know why, but her words seemed to impact him greatly. He sank back onto the bench where he'd sat before.

"Our mom is going to have a cow." He sighed, "She always over reacts to everything."

"I'm sorry, Luke." Isaac apologized once again, "She said that her and dad are on their way right now."

"They left dinner?" Luke asked.

His brother nodded sadly.

"I'm sure they don't mind leaving dinner if it's because their son is hurt." Rini suggested, seeming to be trying to think on the up side of things.

Luke just shook his head, "If you knew my mom, you'd think different."

There was suddenly a buzzing sound, and Luke sighed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He looked at the screen and didn't seem surprised by what he saw.

"It's your mom, isn't it?" Lilly asked, connecting the dots and jumping to a conclusion.

Luke just nodded, and sighed as he answered the call, "Hello?"

Lilly could hear a muffled female voice on the other end, but not well enough to understand anything that she was saying.

"Mom, I'm fine. You didn't have to leave dinner." Luke told his mother, then sighed after listening for a few moments, "No, just stay in the car. I'll come to you."

Without listening to anything else that she had to say, he hung up the phone and shoved it back into his pocket. He then stood and turned to his brother, "C'mon, Isaac. Mom and dad are waiting for us."

"Do we really have to leave?" Isaac complained.

"Yes. Mom is already pissed. Let's just go." Luke said, starting to walk toward the parking lot.

"Let us walk you there." Lilly suggested, placing a hand on Rini's shoulder, who seemed to trying to use Kyouhei as a human coat, "It's the least we could do."

Luke looked at her and sighed, not seeming to have to put much thought into it, "I guess you can if you want to."

This almost excited Lilly, for she didn't want to have to leave Luke's side. She had a fear in the back of her mind that after he left that night, she'd never see him again.

"We better hurry, though." Luke reminded them. They all nodded and followed Luke and Isaac out of the stadium and into the parking lot.

In the middle of the lot sat a red car with the headlights on. As soon as the teens were in their sight, the passenger door swung open, and a woman stepped out. Lilly gasped when she saw who it was. The woman's curly blonde ponytail swung behind her as she ran effortlessly toward them, despite the fact that she was in heels. She jumped up and threw her arms around Luke, suffocated him in a hug for a few moments then cupped his face in her hands.

"Oh my gosh! Luke! What happened?!" She exclaimed, pulling his face closer to hers, "Whoever did this to you is going to get their ass kicked so hard that they won't be able to sit for weeks!"

"Deema?" Lilly, Rini, and Niall all asked in unison, then looked at each other in shock that they all knew this woman.

She looked at them, and all of the anger suddenly wiped off of her face as she smiled kindly at them, "Oh hey guys! Fancy seeing you all here!"

"YOU'RE Luke's mom?" Lilly asked, not being able to wrap that thought around her head.

"Well, yeah." Deema answered, putting her hands on her hips, "Unless he has another mom that I don't know about."

"Well, this just got really weird." Niall said quietly.

"How do you guys know her?" Luke asked them, not seeming to be able to calculate how such a thing was possible.

"Her and her husband are best friends with my parents." Lilly answered, feeling mind blown more than she'd ever had in her whole life.

"Same here." Rini agreed, "Our parents grew up with them. But they were supposed to be at dinner with them right now."

That's when it all made sense. Lilly now understood why she'd thought Rini looked so familiar. They'd met a million times before. She'd just never paid her any attention.

"Does that mean that your parents are..." Lilly started to say, but she was interrupted.

"What's going on out here?"

They all turned to see that a familiar dark male had stepped out of the red car and was walking toward them.

"Hey Goby!" Rini exclaimed as if she was happy to see him.

"Hey." He smiled back, "I didn't know that you guys were friends with Luke."

"Neither did I." Luke agreed.

Goby looked at his son and raised an eyebrow, "You got a little something on your face."

"You think I didn't notice?" Luke answered, looking away and wiping some blood off of his face with his sleeve.

"Hey, don't get sassy with your father." Deema scolded, "That's my job."

"Where are our parents?" Lilly asked, feeling the need to ask a million questions.

"They're on their way." Goby answered, "They figured that since we were picking up Luke and Isaac that they'd come and get you all."

"Things are going to get super awkward when they get here." Luke mumbled.

"Awkward is an understatement." Lilly corrected, "But if they're coming, then I need to find my siblings."

"I still want an explanation on how this happened to you, Luke." Deema said to her son.

'And I want an explanation on how I didn't know that the boy that I like's parents are my parents best friends.' Lilly thought. But apparently the fear that she'd had wasn't true. This wasn't the last that she would see of Luke. This was only the beginning.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: HAHA CHEESY LINE TO END A BAD CHAPTER. Long time no write, eh? Well sorry. I recently started band camp so that takes up a ton of time. BUT I DON'T HAVE MUCH TO SAY BESIDES I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER. So I guess I'll see you in the next one or wherever else you happen to see me XD. ADIOS FOR NOW PEOPLE. PEACE.


	4. Chapter 4: Helium Pentagonic Junk

Their kids were never really around each other. They'd met before, but that was too long ago for them to remember. So why were they suddenly acting like best friends? Deema didn't know, but it outraged her to see her baby boy in pain, and having her best friends' children being there for him warmed her heart. Seeing how much they seemed concerned for him made her wonder what in the world happened that night. They'd always tried to get them to be friends, but they never seemed to want anything to do with each other. Strange.

But that wasn't important. Her mind was focused on figuring out who did the sin of hurting her Luke, and giving whoever it was a piece of her mind.

"Are you sure you didn't recognize this guy?" She asked her son, who was leaning on the kitchen counter, holding a bag of frozen okra to his head (they didn't have an ice pack, so they had to settle for the strange vegetable). He just shrugged helplessly, obviously not having any kind of information. He had a gash on his left cheek that needed to be cleaned before it became infected, and they had their 'finest doctor' on the case.

"Do you guys have any hydrogen peroxide?!" A voice yelled from the other side of the house.

"Who-to-the-what now?!" Deema yelled back.

The face that belonged to the voice appeared around the corner. His fiery red hair that was earlier done nicely for their night out had managed to obtain that naturally messy look that it used to have when they were younger.

"Hydrogen peroxide." He repeated, "You know, that liquid that you pour on wounds to disinfect them?"

"I've never heard of such a thing." She shook her head.

"Nonny, why would we have that in our house?" Goby, Deema's husband, asked, casually eating out of a bag of Cheetos. Their friend Gil was attempting to mooch off of his bag, but kept on getting pushed away, "It sounds like some deadly substance you'd find in a mad scientist's lab."

"Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound consisting of two hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms, being the simplest peroxide, or a compound with an oxygen-oxygen single bond. It is a strong oxidizer and is used as a bleaching agent and disinfectant." Rini blurted, speaking in a monotone voice as if she were reading straight out of a text book. But she wasn't, for she sat cross legged in the corner with Niall fast asleep in her lap, which looked kind of strange since he was nearly the same size as her.

Everyone stared at her in silence for a count of five.

"Very good." Nonny commended his daughter.

"Well can we 'oxidize' my face then?" Luke asked in annoyance, "Cuz it's really starting to hurt."

"We don't have that helium pentagonic junk for it, though." Goby chimed in, his mouth full of Cheetos.

"Dude. It's hydrogen peroxide." Gil corrected him, having given up on his chip-napping attempt, "Even I know that."

Nonny sighed, most likely feeling annoyed by his brainless friends, but there was no telling with him. For as long as Deema had known him -which was a LONG time- he'd always been crazy good at hiding his emotions. Even now, being a full fledged adult with children and everything, it was impossible to tell what was going on in that mind of his.

"We'll have to settle with soap and water, then." He decided, grabbing some paper towels and wetting them in the sink.

Deema groaned and looked around angrily in search of something to punch, "Seriously! SOMEONE has to know something about who did this to my Lukey!"

"Mooommmm." Luke complained, "Don't call me that!"

"Uhm." Lilly chimed in, who was standing by the back door beside Rini, "Rini, didn't you say something about knowing who did it?"

Deema's eyes widened as she shot a look of hope at the ginger girl, "Do you really? Please, if you do, tell us everything that you know."

Rini glared across the room at Kyouhei, who just glared back at her. They seemed to be having some sort of conversation in their minds. It always freaked Deema out when they did that. But they seemed to come to an agreement on whatever they were discussing when Kyouhei nodded and Rini turned back to Deema.

"His name is Russell." She spoke in a small voice, stroking Niall's hair as he slept, "He picks on me and Kyo sometimes, but he's just about the biggest butt-head in the school. So when Luke described the guy who did this to him, we were almost certain that that's who it was."

"What's this Russell kid's last name?" Deema asked, whipping out her phone and opening up her notes app, "I will be going up to that school on Monday to set things straight with the principal."

"Good luck with that." Lilly grunted, crossing her arms, "That 'principal' is kind of a dick."

Isaac, who stood next to Luke, quickly gasped and covered his ears at Lilly's choice of vocabulary.

"Whoa there!" Goby exclaimed, "SOMEONE has a potty mouth."

"Sorry about that." Gil apologized for his daughter, "We allow potty mouths in our house."

"EXCUSE ME." Molly yelled from the other room, "YOU allow it. I do not!"

"Oh." Gil said blandly, loud enough for his wife to hear, "Then... Lilly, shut up."

"You are an amazing parent." Nonny said sarcastically, putting a bandage on Luke's face.

"I know, right?" Gil laughed.

Deema cleared her throat loudly and obnoxiously, "Hello? Is someone going to answer my question?"

"Carlson." Rini sighed, glaring at the floor like something was bothering her, "His last name is Carlson."

Deema quickly typed the name and locked her phone, putting it back in her pocket, "Thank you so much, sweetie. I really appreciate your help."

Rini gave her a half hearted smile before she continued to glare at the tiled floor once again. Deema looked over to Kyouhei, who didn't seem any happier. He sat on the floor by himself across the room from his sister with his eyes closed. He looked beyond tired. There was something wrong, but whatever it was, it was none of Deema's business. She'd have to ask the twins' parents later.

After a moment of silence, Goby, as if reading his wife's mind, looked to his youngest son and spoke, "Isaac, why don't you go pick out a movie and take everyone into the living room to watch it. The adults need to talk for a bit."

Isaac nodded without argument and walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway.

Nonny looked at his children and nodded in the direction that Isaac had gone, "Go with him. And tell your mother to come in here, please."

Gil nodded and turned to Lilly, "You do the same. But tell YOUR mom. Not theirs.."

"Gotcha." Lilly laughed, heading out of the room.

Rini looked down at Niall, as if thinking, 'how in the world am I going to get up?'. Luckily, Kyouhei noticed her struggle, and walked to them, lifting their little brother out of her lap, carrying him out of the room bridal-style. Rini followed.

"Am I good to go?" Luke asked.

Nonny nodded, "Yes. You're all patched up."

"We'll come check on you guys in a minute, sweetie." Deema told her son as he walked out, adjusting the beanie on his head.

As he left, Molly and Oona passed him and entered the kitchen.

"Chris is in the bathroom throwing up." Molly sighed, speaking about her middle child, "He claims to have eaten too much cotton candy. Nina is sitting with him until he calms down."

Gil laughed, "That's my boy!"

"Gilly." His wife scorned, "Stop encouraging our children to do stupid things."

Her long hair, which had earlier in the night been done nicely, was now pulled up into a messy ponytail, and she wore different clothes than she had before... some really familiar clothes...

"Hey!" Deema exclaimed, "Why are you wearing my clothes?!"

Molly smiled apologetically, "Sorry.. Chris kinda threw up on my dress... so I kinda let myself into your bedroom and borrowed some clothes. I'll wash them and give them back next time I see you."

Deema smirked at her friend, "That's fine. No need to apologize. You can keep them. I don't wear them anymore, anyway."

"ANYWAY." Goby interrupted, now being completely serious, unlike his playful attitude from a couple of minutes before, "We need to talk."

"What's going on?" Oona asked, walking to her husband, who wrapped his arms around her lovingly.

"There are some things going on in our children's lives that need to be discussed." Goby answered placing his Cheeto bag on the counter.

"Bullying?" Molly guessed.

"You saw what happened to Luke." Deema sighed, "When stuff like that happens, you know that it's gotten out of hand."

Goby shook his head, "But that's the problem. Luke has never had any issues with bullying before today."

"Maybe that Russell kid just picks on random people." Gil suggested, "He sees someone alone and takes the bait no matter who they are."

"That would make sense." Nonny agreed, not removing his arms from around his wife, "Rini said something about how he's picked on her and Kyo before, and as far as we know, they have no other problems with bullying."

"Do you think that's why they were acting all bummed out?" Deema asked him, leaning her elbow on Molly's shoulder.

Oona shook her head, "They've been acting like that a lot lately. But that's just how they are. They'll both act really weird for a while, but then they'll go back to normal. It happens all of the time."

"Maybe they'll get better after Deema talks to their principal." Molly suggested, "There's always the possibility that Russell is causing they're strange behavior."

"We don't think it's anything serious." Nonny explained, "It's never been easy with them, because whenever one is upset, the other has to be upset right with them. We think that's why they act the way they do."

"It's like they don't have their own feelings." Oona sighed, "Like they both share one mind."

"That's just how some twins are." Gil shrugged, "Nothin' you can do about it."

"Well," Deema said, bringing it back to their original topic of conversation, "we'll talk to Luke and Isaac later tonight. If they say they have any other problems with bullying, then we'll go from there."

"Same." Gil agreed, grabbing Goby's bag of Cheetos from the counter, "Except I don't think our kids have any kind of problems like that... and if they do, then they sure as hell don't show it."

Of course. Gil and Molly had the perfect lives and perfect kids who also had perfect lives. Like usual.

"So as long as we're all here..." Goby said, changing the subject, "Wine, anyone?"

...

Luke didn't let Isaac choose the movie. The kid was so picky about stuff because of ratings and content and language that it was impossible to let him choose. So Luke decided to show everyone their selection of movies and go based off of the majority's opinion. They ended up torn when Lilly and the ginger girl (who's name Luke couldn't remember to save his life) wanted oh so badly to watch Frozen, but Luke and Isaac absolutely did not want to. When Luke asked ginger girl's twin what he wanted, ginger girl translated his silence as 'he doesn't care what we watch'. The way that they seemed to be able to read each other's minds still gave Luke the spooks.

So, after a short debate and ten tons of puppy dog faces and batted eyelashes, they finally agreed on Frozen. Luke had only seen the movie before because his mom had dragged him to the theaters to see it when it first came out. He tried to act miserable while watching it... but come on, who doesn't love Disney?

That boy... the twins' brother... Niall? Was that his name? Well, whatever it was, he was fast asleep on the couch. Isaac considered waking him up, but then changed his mind and decided to go to him and Luke's bedroom (which they shared) and hit the sack. Luke didn't blame him. A single person could only handle so much Frozen.

By the time they got to the Let it Go sequence, Luke started to zone out. He kept on glancing over at Lilly, who seemed really into the movie. Both of them were seated on the floor, but were a good distance apart. With the lights off and the only light coming from the TV and the kitchen down the hall, he couldn't really see those beautiful blue eyes of hers. But that didn't matter. Seeing her face in the dim light was enough. But boy, was that girl beautiful. He kind of felt weird thinking that, considering that he now knew who her parents were, but it was true. Molly and Gil did a good job with making her. Luke tried to push those thoughts aside. He was starting to sound like a creep.

He turned his attention to the twins, who were seated behind him and Lilly on the couch. Those two were without a doubt Nonny and Oona's kids. They kinda looked like a gender-bended version of the couple. That's how similar these two looked to their parents. But Luke felt bad for not remembering their names. They were Japanese names, so they were crazy unique. Of course he wasn't going to remember them. But he'd kill for a unique name like that. 'Luke' was just too boring.

Anyway, it was obvious that the twins were super close. Ginger girl laid with her head in her brother's lap and her legs hugged to her chest. If she were to straighten out her legs, she'd end up kicking Niall, who slept on the other end of the small couch. Twin #2 sat with his elbow propped on the arm of the couch and was leaning his head in his hand. With his other hand, he played with his sister's hair, who didn't seem to mind at all. His own dark hair had fallen in his eyes, and he looked like he was about to pass out. He didn't really seem interested in the movie, but he glared blankly at the screen as if he was sleeping with his eyes open.

Luke's attention was pulled back to Lilly as she suddenly shivered and her body tensed up. She didn't move an inch after that.

"You okay?" He whispered to her.

She glanced at him and laughed awkwardly, "Sorry. It's just a little chilly in here."

"Yeah it always gets pretty cold in here in the fall in winter." He agreed, nodding toward a vent in the ceiling, "Our heating system is bunk."

"Why don't you get it fixed?" She asked.

He shrugged, "My mom says that it's a good reason for all of us to cuddle by the fire to keep warm. But I can't complain. Those are the moments that I look forward to at the end of a long day."

Lilly smiled, warming the room with the simple gesture, "That's sweet. My family doesn't usually do that kind of stuff anymore. With my dad always getting called in to work in the middle of the night to save lives, him and my mom are always stressing out and being tired. But I guess it's worth it. If it weren't for my dad, tons of people throughout the years would've lost their lives."

Luke nodded. He'd known Lilly's father, Gil, for basically his whole life. He knew just how dedicated the man was to his job as a firefighter, and it was obvious that Lilly appreciated it.

She seemed flustered by his silence, "Sorry. I tend to get mushy gushy sometimes."

"Don't you think that everyone has those mushy gushy moments sometimes?" He laughed, causing her to throw him one of those beautiful smiles of hers. She then shivered once again.

"You want a blanket?" He asked.

"No." She replied, "I'll be fine. You stay sitting down."

Ignoring her, he stood and walked to a chair that sat in the corner of the room, and grabbed the blanket that was draped over the back of it.

"Luke, you didn't have to do that." Lilly said.

He sat next to her -closer this time- and placed the soft fabric around her shoulders. Before he got the chance to move, she grasped his hands, which still sat on her shoulders.

"You know, it was kind of getting lonely over here." She whispered as if she didn't want anyone else to hear. She didn't bother to finish her statement.

He looked into her eyes as she looked up at him. Was she really flirting with him? Or was she actually lonely and wanted someone to sit with?

There was suddenly the sound of a throat being cleared. They both looked up to see Gil standing in the doorway with a glass of wine in his hand. There was a stern and angry look on his face. Luke and Lilly quickly pushed themselves away from each other and awkwardly glued their eyes to the TV. Gil's stern expression faded into a smile as he laughed and walked away. Neither of them said another word to each other for the rest of the movie.

...

By the time 2:30 AM rolled around, everyone had finally left the Imani residence. All of the kids had fallen asleep watching Frozen, and had needed to be woken up in order to go home. Isaac had gone to sleep before the movie had even started, and Luke trudged himself to bed as soon as everyone left. That left the adults.

"Let's hurry up and clean the kitchen so we can go to bed." Deema yawned, pulling her silk robe on, "I'm pooped."

"Why don't you go to sleep then?" Her husband suggested, walking to her and wrapping his arms around her waist, "I'll handle the kitchen."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled, "You know I won't allow that."

"With everything that you've done to help, you deserve a little rest." He insisted, "So go to our room and I'll be there in a few minutes."

She sighed and shook her head, "If you say so."

She pecked her husband on the lips and strolled into the dark hallway, disappearing around the corner.

Goby walked to the dish washer and began loading dirty dishes. It was a small amount compared to most days, considering that they had eaten out that night. But even with a family of four, dishes always seemed to accumulate.

He whistled a tune as he placed a dishwasher tab in and and closed it up, pressing some buttons to activate the wash cycle. As he turned to head to his bedroom, he was startled to see a person in the doorway.

"Gosh, Luke, I didn't see you there." He said, "I ought to put a bell on you or something."

"Sorry, Dad." His son apologized, throwing him a half hearted smile and glaring down at the floor.

"Everything all right?" Goby asked, noticing that something was off.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Luke said quietly, "There's just... I mean... I wanted to ask you a question."

Goby blinked, "You want to ask ME a question?"

"Well yeah." Luke nodded, "This isn't exactly something that I could ask mom about. She'd probably make a big deal out of it... so I figured that my dad would be the best person to ask."

Goby nodded and headed to the kitchen table, pulling out chairs for himself and his son, "Come sit."

"Promise me you won't make this awkward." Luke whined, sitting next to his father.

"I'll try my best." Goby laughed.

Luke sighed and looked his father dead in the eyes. Goby had been trying to make the situation comfortable by laughing and making jokes, but by that look in his son's eyes, he knew that he meant business.

"So what's that question you wanted to ask?"

Luke diverted his eyes, glaring at the far wall. There was obviously something bothering him that he was going insane needing to get out. He then met Goby's eyes again and sighed.

"How do you know if you have feelings for a girl?"

There was silence as a smile crept into Goby's face, "So this is about a girl?"

Luke's cheeks turned bright red as he stared at the floor.

"Does this have anything to do with you getting beat up today?" Goby asked in all seriousness.

Luke shook his head feverishly, "No. The guy who beat me up was just some random jerk that I don't even know. This is something completely different."

Goby sighed, "Well, I'll tell you this, when you meet someone that you REALLY like, you'll know it. You'll feel your chest heat up, and experience the craziest butterflies in your stomach that you could ever imagine. You'll suddenly get light headed and have the horrible urge to throw up because being around them makes you so nervous, but you always want to be around them because they're like a drug; you can't get enough of them. Every single little thing about them seems perfect to you, even their flaws. But it gets to the point where you can't be around them because the nervousness is just too much. But then the best feeling in the world is when they finally admit to liking you back, and all of those horrible things go away."

Luke stared at him for a second, "But what if they don't like you back?"

Goby shrugged, "It'll sting for a bit, but trust me, you eventually get over it."

Luke nodded and smiled, "Thanks dad... that really helps."

Goby patted his son on the back, "Anytime. But just know that you can talk to me about anything. I'll be here to listen."

The two of them stood and began to walk out of the kitchen.

"I really appreciate your help." Luke smiled, "It means a lot that I can talk to you about this kind of stuff."

"No problem." Goby laughed, "But I want more info about this girl tomorrow."

"Not happening, dad." Luke said, playfully pushing his father.

The perfect father-son relationship.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: WHAT? I TAKE FOREVER TO UPDATE AND ALL I GIVE YOU IS A FILLER? I KNOW, I'M HORRIBLE. But I appreciate your patience and I apologize for taking so long. So I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will see you next time! Adios for now people! Peace!


	5. Chapter 5: Oscar the Grouch

Gil loved driving in the wee hours of the morning. There were little to no cars on the highway and it was dead silent. Such a peaceful time. Even with his children in the back seat, they didn't disturb the peace one bit. They were all out like lights. Even his wife was passed out in the passenger seat. He'd probably never met anyone on this planet that looked as beautiful when they slept as Molly. The only sound that came from her was the silent and rhythmic hum of her breathing, which you could really only hear if you were two inches from her face. She almost never moved in her sleep, making her easier to share a bed with every night because she wasn't a bed hog, unlike Gil. He was a chronic snorer, and, according to Molly, tended to jack the blanket quite often. After almost 17 years of marriage, She'd learned to keep a spare at the foot of the bed, which kind of backfired on her sometimes because he'd also take that one from time to time.

But seeing her sleep that night, he couldn't help but smile. She was leaning her head on the window and strands of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail hung in her face. Despite being 37 years old, she was still as beautiful as ever. Age had not taken its toll on her, and that was obvious. Although, Gil was pretty sure that it was starting to strip him of his charm, which he was not happy about. But oh well. At least his wife still had it. She would probably be 80 years old some day and still have it.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?"

Gil glanced into the rear view mirror to see his oldest daughter looking at him with a small smile on her face. It was like she'd read his mind.

"Hey, I thought you were asleep." He said quietly to her, not wanting to wake anyone.

"So did I." She laughed silently. He could hear just how tired she was by the way she spoke.

He had wanted to talk to her about what had happened between her and Luke earlier in the night, but he was going to wait until the next day to bring it up. Maybe asking right then while he had time was a better idea?

He hadn't known what exactly was going on in that room, but all he could tell was that they were sitting a little too close and were giving each other the look. Oh yes, he knew about the look. He'd shared it with Molly 5 million times before. But he didn't want to make a big deal about it when Lilly and Luke shared the look. He didn't see anything wrong with it. Teenagers will be teenagers. When he was a teenager he did the same thing, so he didn't want to be a hypocrite. But of course he laughed at their reaction when they saw him standing there. It was funny. But all he wanted to know was whether or not he was interpreting what he'd seen correctly.

"So.." He said, pondering whether or not she would be willing to answer him truthfully, "What was going on between you and Luke earlier?"

She was silent for a moment.

"I was cold." She answered dejectedly, sounding embarrassed, "So he got me a blanket… and I may or may not have asked him to stay."

Gil felt a smirk creeping onto his face, "Do you maybe... have feelings for him?"

She scoffed, then hesitated, like she was trying to come up with some snarky comeback, but was too flustered to think of one. She then sighed, "I might."

That's one of the many things that he loved about his daughter: she didn't even bother to try and keep secrets from him and Molly. If something was going on, she told them. Even if she didn't bring it up, if they asked about it, she'd answer truthfully. That was the kind of relationship that he'd always wanted to have with his own parents, which of course never happened. That was most likely his fault, but you know, whatever.

"Well," He said quietly, letting her know that he wasn't going to try and force any information out of her, "If you ever need to talk about it, then we're here for you, okay?"

Silence.

"Lilly?"

He glanced into the rearview mirror to see his daughter's face in the dim light. Her eyes were closed and her cheek was pressed against the dark window. It was then that he heard the light snoring.

His eyes directed themselves back to the road as he silently chuckled to himself. He loved that girl. He knew that he wouldn't even need to bring it up to her in the morning or any other time. When she was ready to talk about it, she would come to him. He was sure of it.

...

Whenever you watch movies about high school, you don't really realize just how inaccurate they are. In real life, there are some cliques or labels that separate the students among each other and determine who they are 'allowed' to be friends with, but it's not nearly as crazy as in the movies. There's no rule saying who you're supposed to be friends with, it's just that people CHOOSE their friends, and aren't willing to be open to making new ones. In reality, no one is higher up on the social ladder than anyone else... although there are the airheads out there who still believe that they have more importance. Those are the people who everyone else tries to stay away from. Plus, in real high school, there is no school wide drama. It would be difficult to spread a rumor, because people just don't care about it. If there's any kind of drama, it's between a small group of friends and no one outside of the group ever hears about it. That's just how it goes.

Anyway, It was regulation at Carrington High that all students wear uniforms. Some people complained about it. Some people liked it. Lilly was among the half that liked it. She didn't have to worry about picking out her clothes every morning, or worry about being judged on the clothes that she picked. Everyone's wardrobe was equal, and Lilly liked that. Sure, students got to wear whatever shoes they want or whatever hairstyle, but that allowed them a sense of individuality.

So there she was. Walking confidently down the hallway, feeling happy as could be. It had been a fairly good day so far despite the fact that it was a Monday. She walked with her pink high tops on her feet, and her matching hair flowing behind her. She was heading to lunch, which was one of her favorite times of day. It was a B Day, which meant that she didn't have the same lunch as any of her friends, but she didn't care. It gave her some alone time where she could eat, work on homework, or listen to music without anyone bugging her. She loved it.

Lost in thought, not completely paying attention to where she was going, she suddenly felt a harsh shove. She was slammed sideways into the lockers with a loud thud, and fell to the ground.

"Watch where you're going, bitch." The voice of the random male that had pushed her complained as he continued to walk.

What a jerk.

She was used to this kind of stuff. She was never really bullied, but EVERYONE at Carrington got pushed around sometimes, even Lindsay. It just didn't end very well if anyone even tried to touch her. But the inconsiderates at the school that did the pushing around didn't care WHO their victim was; they just seemed to be determined to create a problem.

She began to haul herself up from the ground when she felt a hand on her arm.

"Need a hand?"

She glanced up to see a familiar pair of blue eyes looking down at her as the person in front of her helped her to her feet. She had never been so excited to see another person at school than she had at that moment.

"Luke?"

He looked down at himself as if checking to make sure that he was still there, then laughed and looked back at her, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's me."

She laughed with him as she dusted off her skirt, "What are you doing here?"

"I have this lunch." He shrugged, then giving her a sly smirk, "And if I see a pretty girl fall, I'm not going to just ignore her."

She pushed him playfully and laughed, "Shut up, curly."

That's when she noticed that he wasn't wearing his beanie, and his unruly curls were completely visible on top of his head. Lilly suddenly felt like there were a thousand butterflies in her stomach, flapping their wings and trying to find their way out. She found Luke's hair to be one of his most attractive qualities. She was about to ask why he wasn't wearing his beanie, but suddenly she felt stupid. The school had a strict 'no hats' policy, and Luke probably wasn't one to push the boundaries with such a strictly enforced rule. So she decided to just not bring it up.

"So where are your friends?" He asked, looking around.

She shrugged and spread her hands, "It's just me."

He seemed almost relieved by this, and Lilly wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"So.. I guess you wouldn't mind if I hung around?" He asked, shoving his hands into pockets awkwardly.

She looked him up and down once again. Out of all the people in that school, he wanted to hang out with her? Well, she didn't have a problem with that; she didn't have a single problem with that. It was just that she was having a hard time believing that such a nice, attractive guy would rather be wasting his time with a girl like her...

"Well..." She began, smiling at the ground, hoping to god that he couldn't see her blushing, "I usually use lunch as alone time to do homework, but..."

"But?" He pressed, giving her a hopeful smile. He had his father's smile, which she figured could be considered a compliment. His father wasn't a bad looking dude.

"But," she continued, "I guess I could make an exception. For you."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Oh really? You'd take time out of your horribly busy schedule for little old me?"

He gave her a mock puppy dog face, and she swore she started having heart palpitations. That boy was the most adorable thing on the planet and nothing could convince her otherwise.

"Just shut up and come with me." She laughed, grabbing his arm and pulling him into the cafeteria.

"Where do you even go if you want to eat by yourself?" He asked as they stepped into the lunch line.

"The library." She answered simply, handing him a tray from the stack.

He raised an eyebrow at her once again, "Are you even allowed to have food in the library?"

"Hell yes." She answered, "I do it everyday."

That day they were serving what they called 'tangerine chicken'. It was basically rubbery orange chicken served with rubbery rice that the school wasn't allowed to actually call 'orange chicken' for some legal reason that Lilly didn't care about. But, a lot of times, this 'tangerine chicken' wasn't all that bad.

The two of them made their way through the line, and payed for their food.

As they headed towards the library together, Luke glanced at Lilly's tray and raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you'll be able to eat all that?"

She looked down at her own tray. She had gotten as much food as she could without it costing extra, like she did everyday. That included the entre, three sides, and a drink. But with the school's tiny portions, that was nothing.

"Are you kidding me?" She laughed, "This is barely anything! I swear this school doesn't feed us enough. Why? Does this bother you?"

He gave her a flabbergasted glance, then chuckled as they continued walking, "No, not at all. I'm just surprised that you're so openly willing to eat in front of guys."

She raised an eyebrow at him as they entered the library, "What's that supposed to mean, Curly?"

"I mean 'surprised' in a good way." He corrected, setting down his tray to sign in, like it was required to do every time you set food in that library, "Most girls won't go further than eating a salad in front of a guy."

"Well, I'm not like most girls." She responded, signing her own name as Luke stepped away from the sign-in sheet, "If a guy has a problem with how much I eat, then that's his problem, not mine. If I'm hungry, then I'm going to eat."

He laughed, "You know, guys don't actually find it unattractive when girls eat. Just as long as you don't cover yourself in the food or be noisy with it."

"Yeah, I know." She smiled at him as they headed across the library to find an open table.

"Good." He smiled back at her, "Because that's super annoying. When girls are all like 'Oh, I'll just have a salad'. Like no! You could order the biggest, messiest ribeye on the menu, and I wouldn't care. I actually think it's attractive when girls aren't afraid to eat."

"Thank you!" She exclaimed, "Someone finally understands!"

They laughed as they found an empty table and sat down next to each other. Lilly noticed how easy Luke was to talk to. He actually talked to her as if she was a human being, unlike most other guys. She couldn't stand it when guys dehumanized girls. But Luke was different. He was sweet, and kind, and could actually hold a civilized conversation. That was one of the many things that she liked about him.

She opened her mouth to say something but was abruptly interrupted by a new face.

"Hey Lukifer!" A guy that looked to probably be of some kind of Hispanic descent said as he planted his butt on the table. He said Luke's name as a play-on of 'Lucifer'. He squished Luke's cheeks in his hands, almost like your grandma would when she hasn't seen you in a while, "What happened to your face, dude?"

Looking at Luke, Lilly took into account that his face was still bruised from that past Friday night. The gash on his cheek was also still visible, but looked as if it had begun healing over the weekend. Even with the slight healing, it was still obvious that something had happened.

"Beat it, Oscar." Luke scowled, swatting the guy's hands away.

"Was your pops beating on you again?" The guy, Oscar, said mockingly, putting his hands on his hips like the horrible actors in those really old TV commercials. Even if he was just joking, Lilly wasn't going to have any of it.

"His 'pops' doesn't hit him." She snarled, glaring angrily, "His father is an amazing person, probably unlike yours. You seem to have been dropped on the head a few times as a baby."

Oscar scoffed, glancing at Luke, "Is this the chick you were saying you want to bang? I thought you could do better, man."

Lilly's cheeks turned bright red.

"Oscar-" Luke began, but was interrupted.

"Wait, oh yeah, that's right, you're a virgin." Oscar said in that fake 'whoops, I must've forgot' kind of tone. His comment earned a few giggles from others nearby, who seemed interested in the drama that Oscar was trying to cause.

"So what if he's a virgin?" Lilly butted in, "There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Matter of fact, it's actually probably a good thing to be a virgin at 16. It means he has self control, unlike SOME people."

Oscar scowled at her, "What are you trying to say, bitch?"

She stood, slamming her hand on the table and leaning towards him with a fierce glare, taking him off guard as he reeled away from her in fear, "I'm trying to say that you're a man whore, and you should get your ass off my table before I make your face more bruised than his."

She nodded towards Luke.

Oscar warily stood, and glanced at Luke, "Letting your bitch fight your battles, huh? That's a new low for you, buddy."

With that, he was gone.

Luke sighed, not looking at her, "You didn't need to do that, Lilly."

"Well, he obviously wasn't going to listen to you." She said, sitting back in her seat.

"You don't need to be fighting my battles. I can handle myself."

He didn't sound mad. He had this kind of gentleness in his voice, almost like he was saying that to protect her, not to scorn her.

"Oscar is nothing to worry about, anyway." He continued, "He's all talk. He wouldn't survive two seconds in a fight without running home to his mommy. Trust me."

"All right." She sighed, "I just worry."

"You don't need to worry about me." He interjected, "Besides, we barely know each other."

"Well, we're going to have to get to know each other eventually, won't we?" She asked, "So why not now?"

After a moment of silence, he smirked and shook his head, "You're different, aren't you Lilly Gordon?"

She was about to ask the stupid question of how he knew her last name, but then remembered that he knew her parents, and probably pieced together that see had the same last name as them.

She just shrugged and smirked back, "So I've heard."

They then ate their lunches in silence. Not an awkward silence, but a silence of respect. Because even though they barely knew each other, that didn't mean they had to act like it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I. Am. So. Sorry. Just recently I realized that I haven't updated in SIX MONTHS. THAT'S A LONG TIME. So, I've been spending the past week or two trying to pull myself together to write this horribly short chapter. You see, I've kinda been in a funk with this story. I have everything planned out in detail... except for the beginning. I'm stuck in the beginning funk and there's seemingly no way out. BUT I WILL PREVAIL. Soon, hopefully, I'll finally get on with the good stuff. And I apologize for writing a sucky chapter. I just really wanted to get an update in. So, for now, I give you Lilluke fluff (plus a random conversion between Gil and Lilly which I swear will have importance as the story progresses). And also, I haven't really proofread this chapter, so I apologize for any typos that might be in there. You should see another update soon, HOPEFULLY, but I can't make any promises. But I can promise that you won't have to wait another 6 months. That was my bad. So yeah, that's it. Adios for now people! Peace!


	6. Chapter 6: I SWEAR I WASN'T SLEEPING

Despite being only early October, the air was gloomy, and the dropping temperatures bit at everyone's cold skin. The winter to come was dreaded by many, because if this was how bad AUTUMN was, who knew what winter had in store for them.

Parked in the parking lot of Carrington High, Deema sat in the driver's seat of her car with her fingers wrapped tightly around the wheel. She considered staying right there in that car forever, not wanting to face the bitter cold of the outside air. But she knew that she was there for a reason. Her son's well being was much more important.

Taking a deep breath, she moved her sunglasses from the top of her head to over her eyes, and opened the car door, stepping out into the parking lot. As soon as that door was open, she was shot with a blast of cold air. She quickly closed the door and speed-walked across the parking lot past a few school buses that sat waiting, and climbed the front steps of the building. She shivered as she clicked the buzzer button. She'd been there enough times to know that the doors were locked during the day.

After a few moments of waiting, she heard a click: the doors to get out of the cold, she pulled the doors open and marched in confidently. The sound of her heels clicking against the floors echoed through the empty halls. The students must have been in class.

She marched into the main office (which luckily was directly across from the entrance, otherwise she wouldn't have found it as easily). A woman probably in her 50's or 60's with short, dyed black hair and who probably wasn't unfamiliar with plastic surgery sat behind the main desk. The nameplate on her desk read 'Sue Rhee'. She typed away at her computer with her red finger nails.

Deema stood in front of the desk patiently and waited for assistance. When Rhee payed her no attention, she cleared her throat loudly. The woman glanced up at her through her old lady glasses.

"Can I help you?" She groaned in annoyance.

What, was Deema interrupting her oh-

so-important typing?

"I would like to speak to the principal, please." She answered as nicely as possible, despite the fact that this lady was ALREADY ticking her off.

Not looking away from her computer, the woman sighed, "Do you have an appointment?"

Deema hesitated, "Well, no, but-"

"You may only speak with Dr. Walsh if you have an appointment. Call the attendance office and we'll try to fit you in. Have a nice day." She then proceeded to act as if Deema had never been there.

Oh. He was one of THOSE kinds of principals. One that went by 'doctor' instead of 'mister' or 'misses'. Like he thought that made him special or something.

"If you could please make an exception, that would be great. Because I really need to talk with him-", she tried to say, but was once again rudely interrupted.

"Ma'am, I already told you, you have to-"

"I know what you said!" Deema exclaimed, pulling her sunglasses off her face, "But my son is being put in danger, and if I don't talk to that principal TODAY, then YOU'RE going to be the one being put in danger, missy!"

The woman stared up at her with a bored expression, as if she dealt with crazy moms everyday, "Ma'am, you need to have an appointment in order to speak with Dr. Walsh. Please exit the premises before we are forced to call security."

Deema huffed, and glanced around the room. A paper on the wall behind the woman caught her eye: on it was the attendance office phone number.

She whipped out her cell phone from her purse, dialed the number, and held the phone against her ear patiently. The woman gave her a puzzled look as the phone on her desk began to ring. She opened her mouth to say something, but Deema cut her off.

"Answer it."

The woman scowled at her and slowly picked up the ringing phone, "Hello?"

"Yes, I would like to make an appointment with Dr. ButtFace." Deema said, putting a hand on her hip.

The woman huffed, "Ma'am, what do you think you're doing?"

"You said to call and make an appointment, so I'm calling and making an appointment. Can you get me in, please?" Despite how irritated she was with this woman, she was at least going to use SOME manners. She didn't have all day. She wanted to get home, put on some comfortable clothes, and see her husband and kids without having to deal with any more pesky high school faculty. Hopefully she could fit a nap somewhere in there.

"Please hold." The woman said coldly, setting down the phone and turning to her computer. After tapping at the keyboard for a few moments, she turned back to Deema and forcefully hung up the phone, as if she'd grown aggravated with her, "Dr. Walsh is not available today. We can get you in on the 19th for an appointment. Name please?"

Deema's jaw dropped, "The 19th?! That's in two weeks!"

"I'm very sorry, ma'am, but that's the earliest that we can get you in. Can I have your name please so I can make your appointment?"

Aggravated, She glanced around the room once again. In the far corner of the office, she saw a door with a very clear name written across the translucent glass: Dr. Larry Walsh.

Bingo.

She gave her best fake sigh, and placed her cell phone back in her purse, pretending to be defeated.

"I guess I'll be going, then. I'm busy on the 19th, anyway." She turned and took a step towards the door. She stopped in her tracks and let out the best fake gasp that she could muster, "Oh my god! Look at those kids making out in the hallway!"

Sue Rhee gasped, and stood from her seat at her desk, "Oh I don't think so! Not on my watch!"

She stormed out of the office, but she looked more like a newborn baby deer with the way she struggled to walk in her heels.

Now was her chance.

She spun around and speed-walked towards Dr. Walsh's office. Grabbing the knob, she took a glance around to make sure no one was looking, then pushed the door open and slipped inside. She closed the door behind her and faced forward, only to see the last thing that she expected to see.

A lump of man laid slumped over on the desk, and the sound of obnoxiously loud snoring filled the room.

Was this guy serious?

Deema walked across the room awkwardly, and knocked on the wooden desk, "Mr- I mean Dr. Walsh?"

No answer.

She knocked a little harder, "Hello?!"

Still no answer. His head remained on the desk, with a puddle of drool surrounding it.

She groaned and slammed her fist on the desk, "HEY!"

He jolted in his seat and let out a startled yelp, quickly lifting his head and looking around the room with startled eyes, "AGH paperwork!"

Deema put her hands on her hips and gave the man a stern look.

He was probably in his late thirties or early forties, about the same age as Deema, with graying hair that looked to have been bleached at some point. He had sickly blue eyes, that were probably attractive when he was younger, but now were just kind of intimidating. They had the 'I could totally kill you if I wanted to' look, and she didn't doubt that he could. Other than the eyes, he wasn't very intimidating, though. He wasn't the biggest or most buff dude, and he wasn't attractive by any means. He was mostly lanky and skinny, with long bony fingers. She also couldn't help but notice that he had no ring on his finger; the dude wasn't married. That wasn't a shocker. She most definitely wouldn't want to marry this guy.

Besides, she already had a husband that she loved very much (who was definitely A LOT more attractive by a long shot).

The principal's eyes finally landed on her, and he looked her up and down with an expression of disgust, "Who are you?"

Deema crossed her arms and sucked on her teeth, "Your worst nightmare."

A confuzzled look came across his face, before it turned into shock, "Wait! You're not the new superintendent are you?! I SWEAR I WAS ASLEEP FOR A REASON. It was protocol for, uhh... TO SEE IF MY OFFICE WAS SOUND PROOF FROM, UM, MY SNORING! YEAH, THAT! It was totally an experiment!"

He laughed nervously and gave her a forced smile.

"I'm not the superintendent, dumb ass." She said in an aggravated tone, being just about done with this dude already, "I'm a parent."

"Oh." He said blandly, slumping his shoulders, "What do you want?"

She leaned closer to him and placed a palm on his desk, "What I want is for something to be done about the fact that my son was brutally beat at YOUR football game this past Friday."

"First of all," he began, reclining in his rolly chair and propping his feet on the desk carelessly, "It's not MY football game. I don't want anything to do with those slimy children. And second of all, the football games happen outside of school time and upon the students' free will, so what happens there is none of my concern or the school's. Just tell your son to man up or something."

Deema just stared at him in awe. What was this dude's problem? Why on earth would anyone hire such a sleazeball to work in an educational environment with impressionable teenagers? More or less run the place. Like, who put this dude in charge? A monkey?

On second thought, a monkey could probably run a school better than this dirt bag.

"Listen here, LARRY." She scolded, remembering the name that she had seen on his office door. She grabbed his foot and pushed it off the desk, causing both of his feet to fall to the floor, "I don't know about you, but I care about the well-being of my children. And if you had children -which I doubt you do with THAT face- I know you would feel the same way. Now, I have the name of the hooligan who did this to my baby, and you're going to see that he receives proper punishment for what he did, kapeesh?"

"Ma'am, I told you-"

"Hold that thought." She interrupted, pulling out her phone and searching her notes app for a certain name, "Russell Carlson. He's the student that beat up my son."

Dr. Walsh leaned forward in shock, "Russell? No, it couldn't be him. He's one of my star pupils. He would never do such a thing."

"Oh really?" Deema asked angrily, "Because I know at least two other students who claim to have been assaulted by that delinquent."

She wasn't necessarily 100% positive that she had her facts straight. Rini had only claimed that her and Kyouhei were 'picked on' by Russell, so Deema didn't know whether that meant that if it had ever gotten physical or not. But, someone doesn't just randomly beat one person like the way he did to Luke. It must've been a consistent thing. She had no doubt in her mind that he had gotten physical with both Kyouhei and Rini at some point.

But what broke her heart was that Nonny and Oona didn't know for sure either. And they of all people deserved to know.

"Well, then these 'students' must be lying." Walsh said blandly, standing from his seat, "Now I apologize but there's nothing I can do to help you. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Deema scoffed. She went to argue, but he interrupted her in a hushed tone, "Unless... Unless you're willing to make a deal with me. In which case I might be able to bend a few rules.."

His eyes drifted down...

She gasped and her hand came up as her palm collided with his face. He stumbled backwards with a startled look on his face.

"You disgust me!" She shouted at him, stepping away from the desk, "You should be ashamed of yourself, sicko!"

She spun around and stormed out of the office before he got the chance to say anything else. What nerve this guy had! With what he would've tried to do, she could've gotten him fired.

SHE COULD GET HIM FIRED FOR WHAT HE DID DO.

But that was the last straw. That was strike 9 out of 3 strikes and she wasn't going to deal with that stupid school for another day.

She had made up her mind.

As she stormed out of Dr. Walsh's office, Sue Rhee stood from her desk and shouted at her angrily, "Hey! What were you doing in there?!"

Deema just ignored her as she walked briskly out the door. The halls were now flooded with students as they pushed past each other and out of the exits. She almost paid them no attention as she too made her way to the exit, but she stopped dead in her tracks when she heard a familiar scream.

In the middle of the hallway traffic, she stopped and turned to her right. Through the crowd, she could see a flash of red hair.

She gasped and darted in that direction, shoving past other students and earning a few "Hey! Watch it lady!"s from them. But she didn't care. She pushed through a few more kids before bursting into a break in the flood of students.

The scene before her made her want to vomit.

There was a group of about six or seven girls kneeling on the floor. They surrounded what seemed to be another girl, who lay on the floor on her back, flailing and kicking her legs as she screamed bloody murder. Some of the girls held her arms and shoulders and kept her pinned to the floor. Others grabbed hold of her legs as if trying to keep her still. A last girl was sitting on top of her and leaning over her face. To the right of them, was a cluster of about four or five guys. They had a boy pinned to the lockers. One boy was wailing punches while the others kicked and made sure he stayed pinned. A last one seemed to be carving something into a locker with a broken metal ruler.

The most sickening part, was the cluster of about three teachers standing about ten feet away.

Watching.

The boy pinned to the lockers made eye contact with Deema. Pain and desperation filled his big brown eyes. She'd recognize those eyes anywhere.

Kyouhei.

Blood was running from his nose and the corner of his mouth. She'd never seen anyone in so much pain, yet he seemed to be sending her a message. His eyes darted to the cluster of girls on the floor, then back to Deema. She knew exactly what he was trying to say.

Help her.

She respected that. She rushed over to the cluster of girls. She grabbed the girl that sat on top of her victim by the collar and yanked her backwards, pulling her off.

"Everyone get back!"

All of the girls jumped backwards in a moment of shock. Deema stood over the poor girl, who now had curled into the fetal position and grasped onto Deema's leg for dear life. Her beautiful red hair was a tangled mess and fell over her eyes. One pigtail had been pulled out, and the other still hung in a tangled clump. There was handwriting smeared it sharpie across her forehead. Deema couldn't quite make out what it said.

The boys seemed to notice the disruption and stopped what they were doing. They all stared at her in silence as if waiting for her to make a move.

"I suggest that all of you grab your things, and go home before this gets any more ugly than it already is." She spoke, standing strong and holding her ground.

"Who invited the old lady?" One of the girls asked from behind her.

One of the guys laughed and grabbed Kyouhei by the face, squishing his cheeks, "Does Ching Chang need his grandma to protect him, huh?"

They all laughed.

"This 'grandma' is about to get real angry if everyone doesn't pick their asses up right now and get out of my sight." She said sternly, making eye contact with all of them.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Let's not waste our time with these losers." The girl with the sharpie said, standing up, "C'mon guys. Let's go."

All of the girls stood, following the other girl girl down the hall, mumbling disgusting comments that Deema wouldn't dare repeat.

The guy that had called her a grandma grabbed Kyouhei by the collar and threw him to the ground, hard.

"See ya later, grandma."

Him and his other goons turned and left, leaving Deema alone with the twins and the three teachers that still stood away and watched.

After she was sure the delinquents were gone, she knelt next to Rini, who sat up and threw her arms around Deema, letting pained sobs escape as she buried her face in her shoulder.

"Deeemmaa…"

"It's okay, sweetie." She said softly, stroking the young girl's hair, "Everything's okay now."

She heard the sound of a painful cough from behind her. She quickly turned to see Kyouhei curled up on the ground behind her. He grasped his stomach as if he was about to throw up. He was shaking almost violently, and was breathing sharp and painful breaths. He sounded as if he was struggling to fight back sobs.

"Kyo!" Rini shrieked. She threw herself at her brother. She reached him and gently climbed over him so that she could see his face. Deema came over and knelt beside them.

Rini cupped her brother's face in her tiny hands, looking him in the eyes, "Kyouhei, you need to calm down. I'm here, I'm okay. You're okay. They're gone now. They can't hurt us anymore. Aunt Deema's here. She helped us. Everything is okay now."

She spoke slowly in simple short sentences, as if she were talking to a child. She gently rubbed his cheek with one hand, making sure she held his eye contact. He looked bad. His dark hair was a mess. The entire lower half of his face was covered in blood, and his left eye was purple and swollen. It was the else thing Deema had ever seen. Every breath he made sounded painful. He was crying. Not quite sobbing, but tears streamed from the corners of his eyes and onto his sister's hands.

Deema took a shaky breath, wiping a tear from her own cheek, "Have these kids no mercy?"

"They never have.." Rini said quietly, not breaking eye contact with Kyouhei.

That's when Deema finally got a good look at the writing on Rini's forehead. And upon seeing it, her heart shattered into a million shards like broken glass. Her hand came up and clamped over her mouth.

Across her forehead in smeared, forced handwriting, was one four lettered word in all capital letters, marked onto her skin with black ink:

Slut.

Kyouhei seemed to notice at the same time. His hand came up, pushing her hair out of her face and running his thumb along her hairline.

Rini sighed, closing her eyes, "What does it say?"

Deema shook her head, "You don't want to know."

Her eyes wandered to the locker that the boy with the ruler had been carving into. Her heart dropped even further at the letters etched into the metal.

Unfinished, it read only 'Inces' with half of a vertical line after the s. Deema could only guess was it was supposed to say.

Incest.

"All of this. It's so messed up." She said quietly.

The twins were silent.

"C'mon guys." She said, standing, "I'm taking you home."

She and Rini helped Kyouhei to stand, though he seemed like he was going to pass out at any second. Blood from his nose dripped into the tiled floor as he coughed painfully. Rini whispered to him, repeating things like "Everything's okay. We're going home. Aunt Deema is taking us home."

Deema looked back at the teachers who hadn't moved from their spot. All she could do was give them a dirty look. She didn't feel like dealing with those lowlifes. She was so angry she didn't even want to waste her time with such scum.

Yet, despite the anger, she couldn't help but cry.


End file.
